Gynecocracy

And before my beautiful Vivien, I had to say those words; hiding my face, doing all I could to conceal it. I seemed to give her wonderful pleasure, and I suppose I looked very artless and attractive, for she kissed me.

"Get the pot," she said, her eyes full of mischief. "Put it on the chair."

"Now, come," she said, taking hold of me and walking me over to the chair. She put her right arm round me from the back and held up my chemise.

"Now Baby, Baby, tiddley, tiddley-be quick!"

I laughed. "I can't," I exclaimed.

"Nonsense, Baby. Baby must."

"Oh, Mamma! You darling," I exclaimed.

"Baby be dear boy. Baby do what his mamma wants him to, and not keep her waiting."

This aspect of the affair settled the matter.

Baby did.

"Good boy!" said his mamma.

Then baby put the vessel under the valance and lay face downwards on the bed.

His mamma, charming girl that she was, stroked his bottom and explained his wickedness to him while she screwed in the tube. Then as baby groaned, she filled the bulb full, and with an arm and a hand on the small of baby's back, squeezed it, and I felt the warm water enter into my bowels.

"Baby not be naughty with his cousin any more," she said, her sweet womanliness overpowering me as releasing the pressure of her hand she let the tube fill again, "for his mamma does not like to have to punish him but when he is naughty she must," squeezing the now full bulb again.

"Oh! Oh! No more." I felt I should burst. "Oh, Mamma! Oh, Gertrude! Oh, my dear Mamma! Oh! Oh! Oh!"

"Yes. Baby must be thoroughly punished; his bottom must be made to suffer."

The idea of her being conscious of what I was undergoing; of her, Gertrude Stormont, the stranger who had entered the railway carriage at Colchester, the beautiful girl in the brown dress with the golden hair and her ladylike refinement, doing this to me, filled me with all manner of sensations, pleasant and unpleasant. I could not escape.

Again the bulb was pressed, and at last the gurgle in the basin told me the allotted portion was exhausted.

"There," she said, withdrawing the whole instrument, "I think I have punished you well."

"Take this dressing gown of mine; put it about you-there is a bathroom at the other side of the passage. Go and have a bath and then come back to me."

I went. I cannot describe the multitude of feelings with which I was overwhelmed.

I bathed, and did more; the bathroom possessed all the necessary accommodation of course-though really the sanitary arrangements of these private hotels are not all up to date, not all that could be desired.

Wrapping myself up, I returned up, I returned to Gertrude. Her hair was down; the snake of gold which had withheld the braid had been removed. She was combing its lovely, gorgeous, waving masses with a maidenly pride.

"Oh, my beautiful Mamma!" I exclaimed.

She had removed her dress also, and was in a pretty peignoir. My dressing gown was all I had on; the stockings and chemise I threw on the bed.

Without a word she got up and taking hold of the dressing gown, opened it, and threw it off my shoulders.

She made me walk about the room and at length said: "Now, Julian! What have you to say to me?"

"Oh, Gertrude! I mean Mamma, I–I-love you!"

"You, very naughty boy!" she answered with mock disapprobation but smiling and evidently well pleased as she moved towards a satin-covered couch on which there was a great square pillow and reclined upon it her golden hair like an aureole about her fair face. "Don't you know, don't you remember, I have already told you that it is very wicked to entertain such feelings for your mamma?"

There was a strange gleam in her eyes as she said this which immediately excited my wonder. I did not know what she was driving at and was considerably puzzled. As to my feelings, however, there was no opportunity for being puzzled. How attractive, how desirable she looked, as she lay there in a dishabille of the most alluring kind, one slender leg unveiled almost to the knee and the other far away from its sister at the other side of the sofa. When a young lady sits edgewise upon a table, she is said to be in want of a husband; when she lies on her back in the presence of a naked young man, careless about her clothing, her eyes aflame, and her legs well separated, it may safely be affirmed she wishes to welcome that young man to her arms. But then why baulk him with all this talk, this fiction of being his mamma? I suppose it excited her. No doubt the idea of being possessed by, of yielding to her son, gave a peculiar, a poignant zest to it, which the ordinary humdrum everyday copulation of a youth and maiden would have been without. And to this sense of double possession and power must, I think, be attributed the treatment most stepmothers accord their stepsons. It causes a peculiar especial flavour to the lust. A strong stimulant to the imagination, which no woman can say "No" to, and as they are too conventional, or want the courage to act as Parisina, they 206